Brian Costello's Column

The Oilers were a monumental flop in the first quarter of 2013-14 despite a lineup studded with young guns and a much ballyhooed coach. But it's goaltending that will save the Oilers and the presence of Ilya Bryzgalov is elevating Devan Dubnyk's game.
As a Calgary native, it pains me a little to say this, but I’m fully expecting a huge second-quarter resurgence in the Edmonton Oilers.

We combine final draft lists from five different outlets and see what comes out on the other side.
The ranking of prospects you see in Draft Preview this year were assembled by scout Grant McCagg and fine-tuned by the scouting networks of THN writers Ryan Kennedy and Ken Campbell.

When the Devils were penalized for the Ilya Kovalchuk contract, they had to forfeit a first-rounder in one of the next four drafts.
A calculated risk Lou Lamoriello and the New Jersey Devils took at the 2012 draft is now trending in a bad direction and could backfire in a big way a year from now.

Perhaps the prospect Calgary picks with the Penguins first-rounder will amount to something, but history and the current outlook say the odds aren't good.
There’s a very good chance that when all is said and done a decade or so from now, the Calgary Flames will have garnered next to nothing from trading Jarome Iginla.

With THN's annual Future Watch available now, we take the opportunity to look back at the most recent NHL draft.
More than a few of scouts have mentioned to me it's typically the second season after a prospect is drafted that those in the evaluation business get a real sense of if the teenager is going to make it big, make it small, or not make it at all.

This year's draft was originally touted as the best since 2003, but some scouts are stressing against that kind of optimism.
There’s good news and bad news for teams getting off to sluggish starts this lockout-shortened season. The good news is there’s some high-end young talent available in the 2013 NHL draft – Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones and Jonathan Drouin at the head of the class – for the bottom-feeders to feast on.

With the 2012 class officially inducted, THN's HHOF guru handicaps the next in line. The Hockey Hall of Fame is getting into this recycling thing, big time.
The trend the past few years with the Hall’s 18-member selection committee is to reconsider, then induct, previously passed-over NHL stars.

The Russian Rocket has been eligible for the Hall since 2006, but somehow hasn't been inducted yet, despite a terrific career. The fact Pavel Bure isn’t in the Hockey Hall of Fame is one of the game’s great oversights for six years now.
First eligible for Hall induction in 2006 (after retiring in 2003), Bure is among the best pure goal-scorers in the history of the NHL.

With so many lists ranking the top prospects out there, we combined some of them to come up with the most accurate list possible. NHL draft rankings and mock drafts congregate at the intersection between scouts and media. Scouts have the know-how to size up potential in teenage prospects.

The 2011 draft would unfold differently if we factored in scouts' current rankings of the first-rounders. We came up with the idea of Future Watch 25 years ago because we wanted to gauge how draft picks were advancing in their most formative years.

From Patrick Kane's Superman impression to Carey Price's blue ice antics, the skills competition was a show for the fans. OTTAWA - There was a loud creaking sound coming from Scotiabank Place in Ottawa Saturday night. The pessimist will tell you it was the sound of hockey purists turning over in their graves seeing their beloved game reduced to a collection of buskers clowning around on the ice.